Having completed five successful years in India and with over one lakh unit sales last year, Datsun India is now aggressively looking at Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities for its next phase of growth. The brand is also leveraging India’s growing digital push to reach out to its customer base in a big way. In an interview with exchange4media, Jerome Saigot, Managing Director, Nissan Motor India Pvt. Ltd, spoke about the Datsun’s journey in India and way ahead.

Datsun has completed five years in India. How do you see this journey when you look back?

Since our entry in 2014, we have made steady growth in India. We are optimistic that the unique value proposition, stylish design, and features offered by Datsun products will help us tap more customers in the coming years. The year 2017-18 was positive for the brand and we continue to sustain this momentum. Last year, we achieved our one-lakh-sales milestone, and we will continue to expand our focus on Tier 2 and 3 markets where we currently clock the largest volumes. India is seen as the growth engine for the global automotive industry, and in the future Datsun will be targeting the most competitive segment in the passenger vehicles segment.

What role has digital has played in influencing customer choice and how are you engaging with them to stay on top?

Digital has played a critical role in our successful run in India, and we are leveraging digital platforms effectively to target our customers. In fact, digital is leading Datsun’s main communication and marketing strategy. This approach is driven by the fact that globally almost 70 per cent of car sales are digitally influenced. The impact of the digital customer is becoming an integral part in the auto purchase life cycle, disrupting the traditional car-buying experience and we are leveraging digital platforms effectively to target our customers.

What are the insights behind the MorePower2U campaign? What is the aspect of change/empowerment that the campaign is aiming to bring about amongst consumers?

We are celebrating five successful yeas of Datsun globally. #MorePower2You brings alive the inspiring stories of Datsun owners who take that extra miletowards their passion and ambition. With this campaign, we aim to recognize and celebrate the bold choices our customers across different walks of life havemade, the obstacle they have overcome, and how Datsun redi-GO has been essential in their journey.

How have the past campaigns performed?

Datsun has always been a challenger brand and many of our customers have appreciated and enthusiastically participated in all our campaigns. #ISayYes has helped us build a strong connection with young, ambitious and aspirational Indians. Through various campaign legs, we have inspired young risers to come forward and share their dreams with the world.

The Datsun #VoteForChange campaign, was based on elections, and with its ‘Candidates for Change’ manifesto, speaks to young India’s hunger for transformation. It urges them to exercise their right to new choices through a series of planned social activations and innovative storytelling. Now, with our latest #MorePower2You campaign, we were focused to take the excitement and customer engagements a couple of notches ahead.The response to has bee overwhelming – we have received 6,564,800 organic impressions through Facebook, and close to 553,396 engagements on Twitter.

What kind of campaigns will audiences see in the coming time? What is Datsun’s focus behind them?

As a young, challenger brand, our focus is on being disruptive. At the heart of our campaigns are customers who are challenging the status-quo, much like Datsun. Datsun is also aggressively reaching out to potential customers in regional markets by creating new sales touch points through experiential activities. Experiential marketing is extremely important to our approach as it provides people a platform to interface with our car and understand its underpinning technologies.

Focusing specifically fontier 2 and tier 3 we recently kicked off the third edition of Datsun Experience Zone. The three months long promotion activity comprises of 12 specially designed canter vans adorned with eye-catching livery featuring our 5th anniversary celebration campaign that will travel to 750 different locations. The Experience Zone represents our commitment to reach out to consumers in the hinterlands and give them an experience of our brand promise.

At the Vivo Indian Premier League (IPL) auction 2019 held in Jaipur on Tuesday, 60 of the 70 slots were filled. And of these 60 players sold, 40 were Indian and 20 international. The total money spent was Rs 106.8 crore.

New talent Jaydev Unadkat and Varun Chakravarthy attracted the highest bids of Rs 8.4 crore each and were bought by Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals, respectively. They were followed by England upstart Sam Curran for whom Kings XI Punjab shelled out Rs 7.2 crore. The latter was the highest foreign buy.

While Chakravarthy emerged as the biggest surprise, popular cricketers such as Cheteshwar Pujara, Brendon McCullum and Alex Hales remained unsold.

Mumbai Indians shelled out Rs 1 crore for ace cricketer Yuvraj Singh, which happened to be their biggest steal in the tournament's 11-year history. They also brought back Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga who played for them for a long time. He was bought at the base price of Rs 2 crore.

The forthcoming VIVO IPL 2019 Player Auction is set to be an unparalleled spectacle with Star Sports, the official broadcaster of the tournament, geared up with a special line up of programming shows for all cricket fans across the country.

VIVO IPL 2019 Player Auction will be held in Jaipur on Tuesday. The live coverage of the auction will be preceded by a 60-minute special pre-show starting from 2.30pm.

The broadcast of the 12th edition of the player auction will include live expert reactions, analysis and a special spotlight on all leading developments throughout the day, featuring cricket experts like Gautam Gambhir, David Hussey, Dean Jones and Kiran More.

Star Sports also launched the second edition of the VIVO IPL Election Se Selection as a lead up to the VIVO IPL 2019 Player Auction. VIVO IPL Election Se Selection offers fans an opportunity to vote for their favourite player who they wish to see playing in their favourite VIVO IPL team.

The campaign has received massive response so far with over 3.1 million fans voting on the official portal vivoiplelection.hotstar.com.

Vyoma Media, the out-of-home digital solutions company, has announced that they have been awarded the digital outdoor advertising mandate to promote launch of two TVS XL100 vehicle models—TVS XL100 Comfort and TVS XL100 HeavyDuty i-TouchStart.

TVS XL100 HeavyDuty i-TouchStart will be the first heavy duty vehicle in India to have an electric start based on the integrated starter generator system.

Vyoma Media will aim to build on the affinity towards the TVS brand by engaging consumers through their smart displays at ticket counters across Karnataka, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh railway stations. This content will include localisation and with a core focus on raising awareness. The campaign’s creative will be showcased in two different languages – Kannada and Hindi – and the resulting SMS’s on the viewers’ mobile phones will be in the same language as shown in the creative they have responded to. Further engagement will be ensured when the respondent is redirected to the brand’s product page where potential buyers will be able to engage with the customer care team and ask any questions that they might have.

The campaign for TVS XL100 Comfort will be seen across cities in Karnataka while the campaign for TVS XL100 HeavyDuty i-TouchStart will be across cities in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Both the campaigns will run for a period of 2 months.

This is the second brand campaign Vyoma has initiated for TVS recently.

S Vaidyanathan, Vice President – Utility Products TVS Motor Company Ltd. said, “We wanted to initiate a campaign with a focus only on interactive and localised creative. Vyoma’s displays, placed at prominent locations will allow us to integrate and amplify the brand’s campaign for TVS XL100 Comfort and TVS XL100 HeavyDuty i-TouchStart in its key markets. It will also ensure that our brand loyalists are aware of the new innovative features in the vehicle and help us maintain top of the mind recall.”

Dentsu Webchutney, the digital agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, has partnered with UN women to raise awareness about gender violence that goes unnoticed with their new campaign #DrawALine. Aimed at spreading a message in a very clear yet powerful manner, it had to be emotional yet relatable in a way that could easily be understood across geographies and demographics.

Gender violence is a harsh reality that we can no longer ignore, and there will never be a better time to speak up, than now.

The issue has been plaguing our society for way too long, and despite the country’s rapid rate of development, stories of domestic violence and physical abuse are repeatedly witnessed across different facets of society… be it urban or rural, high net income or below poverty line households.

The bigger pressing issue is that this very gender bias has been instilled in the society through a history of oppression and patriarchy, the light portrayal of domestic violence by media, and a general lack of coverage. This has become a reality that many women have come to accept. Either out of fear, or not seeing a way out, many endure such troubles without ever speaking up.

As concerned individuals the question is often asked, where do we draw a line? At what point has one individual had enough?

The result is the short film Lakeer, a beautifully crafted piece that takes us through a series of traumatic events in the life of a woman living in rural India. The challenge however, was making the audience feel just as uneasy as the protagonist in the story.

It did so by using different elements of suspense, combined with perfectly timed audio cues that make the viewers feel restless and anxious. The conclusion left its audience with introspective questions about how the world needs to change in this regard… precisely the intended result of the campaign.

The symbolism in the film depicts the inter-generational cycle of violence and how it pervades into the daily life of women. By the end of it, it becomes very clear that is high time for us to stop this injustice, and #DrawALine where it truly matters.

Salina Wilson, Programme Analyst, UN Women, had this to say about the initiative “This is a short film we made with all our hearts - a cloud of despair, lined with the ray of hope that women, children, and just as importantly, men across the world, will find the courage to listen and speak about gender violence.”

Sudesh Samaria, Chief Creative Officer and Co-founder, Dentsu Webchutney, added "Violence against women and girls is something we all need to overcome, and as responsible individuals, it is time we come together to #DrawALine once and for all. Despite the film’s harsh visuals and narrative, we felt that this is a story that needs to be told."

Anil Kumar, Executive Vice President, Dentsu Webchutney, said “This campaign aims at creating something simple, yet audio-visually powerful that stays with the people. As a cause, it is one we adamantly stand for, and we truly relished the opportunity to work with UN Women, and support the mission in the best way we can.”

According to media reports, an investigation has revealed that Johnson & Johnson’s iconic product, the talcum powder, was sometimes tainted with carcinogenic asbestos and that J&J kept the information from regulators and the public.

It was found that from at least 1971 to the early 2000s, the company’s raw talc and finished powders sometimes tested positive for small amounts of asbestos. The company executives, mine managers, scientists, doctors and lawyers fretted over the problem and how to address it while failing to disclose it to regulators or the public, the media report said.

The documents also depict successful efforts to influence US regulators’ plans to limit asbestos in cosmetic talc products and scientific research on the health effects of talc.

A small portion of the documents have been produced at trial and cited in media reports. Many were kept from public view by court orders that allowed J&J to turn over thousands of documents it designated as confidential.

The earliest mentions of tainted J&J talc were found from 1957 and 1958 reports by a consulting lab. They describe contaminants in talc from J&J’s Italian supplier as fibrous and “acicular,” or needle-like, tremolite. That’s one of the six minerals that in their naturally occurring fibrous form are classified as asbestos.

Most internal J&J asbestos test reports that were reviewed did not have asbestos. However, while J&J’s testing methods improved over time, they have always had limitations that allow trace contaminants to go undetected and only a tiny fraction of the company’s talc is tested.

The World Health Organization and other authorities recognise no safe level of exposure to asbestos. While most people exposed never develop cancer, for some, even small amounts of asbestos are enough to trigger the disease years later.

The evidence of what J&J knew has surfaced after people who suspected that talc caused their cancers hired lawyers who knew from earlier cases that talc producers tested for asbestos and began demanding J&J’s testing documentation.

What J&J produced in response to those demands has allowed plaintiffs’ lawyers to refine their argument: The culprit wasn’t necessarily talc itself, but also asbestos in the talc. That assertion, backed by decades of solid science showing that asbestos causes mesothelioma and is associated with ovarian and other cancers, has had mixed success in court.

J&J declined to comment further for this article. For more than two months, it turned down repeated requests for an interview with J&J executives.

The company referred all inquiries to its outside litigation counsel who has rejected the findings as “false and misleading.”

Royal Stag recently announced its five year partnership with the International Cricket Council (ICC). The partnership has once again reiterated that sporting platforms have become effective marketing platforms for brands across the board. In this exclusive interview, Kartik Mohindra, CMO, Pernod Ricard India, spoke about the new association and how Pernod Ricard is looking at brand amplification involving cricketing and non cricketing platforms.

Does this association underline the growing influence of sporting platforms as effective marketing channels?

Yes it does. There are two reasons, first is that sports is about active viewership, GEC is also active, but lesser, it is almost passive from a viewership standpoint. When you are speaking about GECs, you are also talking about viewership getting split between various members of a particular household. As marketers you have to understand who is driving the choice of programming in a particular household.

When it comes to sports, by and large, you are very clear about who you are reaching out to. In my opinion if there is a major sporting activity, like the upcoming World Cup, you know that TV viewership and print readership is going to be skewed for that time behind the fever of the World Cup.

Also, sports in India used to be only cricket and it was extremely expensive. But as you see, with the Indian Soccer League, the Indian Kabbadi League, Badminton League, all these sports are also getting their rightful place under the sun. And with it, a lot of new avenues have opened up for a number of brands.

Even within cricket, if you look at IPL, it brought to the table so many sponsors or brand partners, which were not there earlier when it came to international cricket. But when everybody jumps on the bandwagon, the problem of standing out arises.

To me there are a lot of sporting events which have too many brands, so I sometimes wonder who is getting picked up. It is maybe only a reminder communication at some point. So it is about integrating deeper and deeper. We are not only partners with ICC, we also have a whole 360 camping around it to amplify the association.

The Royal Stag campaign " Make It Large' has featured across platforms and still continues to move audiences. What would you call the factors that have made this campaign so successful over the years?

I believe there is a lot of internal passion behind Royal Stag and what it has become, and there is a lot of belief in what the brand does and the position that it has taken. That is also something which keeps the consistency going through the length and breadth of our organization.

What makes it so impactful is that it is a very simple insight which is true for each one of us—“It's your life, make it large.” At every level this is what each one of us aspires to do and it does not change in my opinion with time.

When we started with this campaign it was 2004 and today is 2018. So 14 years on, the aspiration has still not changed. It may have moved to another level and they also want to move on to the next and then the next. That is the sentiment and that is the insight we are at and we are about being that brand which inspires the audience to go out there, dream and achieve.

If you see, for this campaign, we have not picked up stars; we have picked people who from nothing have made massive name, who embody the philosophy of the brand. There are many cricketers over the years who we found even before they entered the national team and they went on to captain the country.

For the marketer today there are so many platforms to communicate, has it made marketing more effective or more complex?

I think it is wonderful. The Indian audience is expanding; their desires and their interests are evolving. If you take the digital media, it has opened up a whole landscape of interests for people. So they are naturally going to get associated with so many things.

From a marketer's standpoint, you have to continuously track what is gaining more prominence, what is more inspiring, what associates better for your own brand, and then you latch on to it. But the minute you do, do it with all your heart.

This choice also gives us a lot of opportunity to go out there and do different things. Life for marketers was a lot simpler earlier; it is a little more difficult now and therefore a little more exciting too.

We are big and we want to become larger, we want to spread our wings across many countries around the world, make our presence felt, and this association with ICC is one of the steps in that direction.

Tell us about your new ICC campaign, which platforms are you targeting?

It is going to be a multi media campaign and we are not going to be limited to television only. Digital is important and will continue to be important for us and another primary vehicle from my standpoint.

The print media is equally important, and last but not the least is out of home. We on our part have not finalized the plan or the mix but we are going to leverage every touch point that we can possibly have.

After this association with ICC, are you looking at partnering with other sporting platforms too?

We have a very wide portfolio within the group Pernod Ricard and with the footprint that we have in India, there are several brands which are associated with several sports. We have Imperial Blue which has previously been with hockey and is currently also with football. So we closely monitor the viewership patterns and accordingly associate our brand with those. So it's a moving target.

Renowned Indian producer in Hollywood, Hyde Park Entertainment Founder, Ashok Amritraj, was conferred with the French distinction of Order National du Merite awarded by the President of the French Republic on December 14.

At a ceremony in Mumbai, Amritraj was presented with the Knight of the Order of Arts and of Letters (Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) medal. Present at the ceremony were French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian and Ambassador of France in India, H.E. Alexandre Ziegler.

The Order of Merit is part of France’s premier award, the Legion of Honor, and is awarded “to recognise eminent artists as well as people who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world.”

Amritraj enjoyed a successful professional tennis career prior to establishing Hyde Park in 1999. He has produced over 100 movies in the span of his 30 year career.

In 2016, Amritraj was recognised by the United Nations for his role as a committed agent of change in his native country. Amritraj was appointed by U.N. India as its first Goodwill Ambassador for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including poverty and hunger alleviation, improvements in water and sanitation, and promoting gender equality.

“I am humbled and privileged to receive this honour. I would like to thank the government of France for the Order National Du Merite and for recognising my journey in the world of cinema. This award is a tribute to the growing cooperation between the film industries of France and India, an idea whose time has come,” expressed Amritraj.

The ninth edition of IPRCCC saw a panel discussion themed ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and Nation building’, where talks revolved around how communication supports in building blocks, bridging the gap between social responsibility and corporate governance.

Initiating the session with how the term CSR can be made more ‘humanised’ rather than business centric, Balasubramaniam added, “Consumers identify brand through human connect and that’s what is precisely happening these days.”

Talking about the need to redefine CSR, Prabhu added, “By saying CSR, you are already putting the corporate insight and that itself limits you from an outreach perspective. It should be changed upside down to focus more on the impact that it creates.”

Speaking about whether brands should be more subtle when it comes to CSR and allow it to speak for itself, Malik added, “The day we stop taking CSR as a marketing tool and really take it as a social responsibility, things will change.”

Speaking about how the whole CSR approach needs to be changed, Kumari added, “Earlier what we knew about the CSR was the foundations of the corporations. Doing some kind of a work, which nobody knew was going on. Today, it has opened up because the way the Government is looking at things like sanitation, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and so many schemes and programmes. Also, as long as you call it a responsibility, it becomes a kind of a forced thing. We can call it accountability or something that you really want to contribute to.”

Talking about what the future holds for CSR, Bajaj said, “Results show that by 2019, 50,000 crores will be spent by corporate in CSR. This is a good indicator but it needs to go deeper and we need to be more focused”

The session moved ahead with discussion around the challenges in maintaining the ethos in the corporate hierarchy with regard to CSR. Balasubramaniam added, “It is very important that there is unison in thought when CSR is being implemented and the message does not get lost in the hierarchy.” Further, Khurana added, “Unless the communication teams understand the core values of the CSR, they cannot communicate effectively. Communication team needs to go to each and every element of the CSR activity, understand it, bifurcate it and then communicate it.”

Talking about the need to create value beyond the business, Prabhu added, “What people are asking today is whether you are genuine in doing the CSR and is it creating the desired impact?” Talking further about the need of CSR to come from the core business belief of the business, Bajaj added, “Leadership and individuals can change but the business does not. What does your business stand for, what are the values that you live for and what is that area which you think will engage the most with your audiences and where you can create an impact will create a long term value.”

Concluding the sessions with whether companies are realising that consumers are watching them closely when it comes to CSR, Mallik added, “Developed countries like America have seen that the purchasing goes up by almost 57 per cent wherein the companies are more emotional and socially active.”

At the ninth edition of India Public Relations and Corporate Communications Conference 2018 (IPRCCC) saw a panel discussion themed ‘Blurring lines between communication and marketing strategy. How to draw the distinction between the two?’

The panel discussion revolved particularly on every business or corporate wanting to identify their communication channel as building blocks for their marketing and communication strategy. Marketing and communication works in parallel, however the lines are blurring considering the shift towards digital media communication from traditional media communication. In certain case marketing take precedence, in certain case PR take precedence. How to define the blurring lines especially when marketing companies offer PR as part and parcel of their strategy and PR companies marketing as part of their services. Finding the right channel is a key.

The discussion started with the opening thoughts by Chatterjee of PWC India, “Communication is important and is radically changing and the marketers are always finding the right way to communicate, to connect and gage with the audience so that they can meet the business objectives, to increase brand awareness or to get leads.”

Further to this, all panellists agreed that communication and marketing are integrated and thus they evolved the topic to PR & Marketing. Jain of PR Pundit, believed that the best practices are born out of integrated marketing. In the old days there was so much to there was so much more on opportunities to chase and then came the whole digital space. The brand has to have a natural fit in the platform that the PR agency tries to weave the story and hence it has authenticity at the heart of it. If it is effortlessly fitting in the platform the marketers will say a yes, but because it is becoming forceful thus the lines are blurring.

Speaking of increase in investment in branded content, Vasudevan of Dell said, “It is beginning. Authenticity is definitely the keyword here.”

At the ninth edition of India Public Relations and Corporate Communications Conference 2018 (IPRCCC), Rohit Bansal, Group Head of Communications, Reliance Industries spoke about ‘When silence isn’t golden, responding to crises in communication’.

Watch the video here, and scroll down to read the discussion:

Explaining that silence was golden only if it was planned and strategic, Bansal said, “People are getting all kinds of information across multiple platforms; they hardly see the kind of spin that is being loaded into it. So I think silence is golden so long as you have done a lot of thinking ahead of the curve.”

“I feel silence is golden if you have done your work, you have anticipated to the point of paranoia about all the kinds of things that can be potentially thrown at you as a product, as a brand or as a service. Silence is golden so long as you can afford it and you have planned for it,” he added.

Citing example of the recent viral video featuring a food delivery man tasting food to be delivered and how brands could avoid such instances which are sometimes beyond their control, Bansal said, “There is no absolute black and white in silence vs. speaking, but there is great benefit for all of us as corporate communications leaders to know that a lot of planning can happen well before the event, and that is what we should be actually focusing on.”

Bansal also urged communications professionals to do scenario building a lot earlier in order to pre-empt situations that could have adverse impact on the brand.

“The planning has to happen much earlier. I think mistakes in such situation happen in quick succession because there is pressure to perform and to show your counter narrative. Leaderships have to understand that they need to do scenario building a lot earlier.”